The leaves are changing, and we've had our first good storm opening the door for all the rest and leaving us with nice wet ground for future burn days. That was the first thing I did after the storm was get rid of the back burn pile. The front one will take a little more effort. It has grown large enough over the summer that I will need to use the skid-loader to pull it apart into smaller bits.
The colder weather has turned everyone's thoughts to keeping warm and the requests for alpaca socks and gloves have started. I must disappoint because I have neither. I have hats, and shawls but no gloves and no socks. I can tell you where to get them!
On the same line with keeping warm is the need for fire wood. The storm spurred everyone into action on the hill and I hear chainsaws around every bend. We are no exception. A good friend loaned us a log splitter and after one intense weekend all the logs that my dad had spent time bucking up were turned into about 6 cords of wood, both oak and pine with extra for next year as well. When they logged, down the hill from us, the logging company brought us all kinds of lovely oak. That was last year and so this year we are truly blessed and it will continue to bless us into next year as well.
Stormy weather? Bring it on!
Last weekend was also the last farmers market in Garden Valley till next year. I will miss all the people that comprise the market and the regular community that congregates there. This last week I brought two alpacas to visit as well. I was surprised at how many of the regular people that I had talked to numerous times seemed to see me in a new light with the critters there. Suddenly my spinning took on whole new meaning. I came away with three new orders. A nice way to end the summer. It is actually what brought me back to the computer to update the blog, my fingers needed to do something different after knitting all day. The boys I brought were very well behaved and both kids and adults were enamored with them.
Some weeks ago a new alpaca came to live with us. "Danarious" or just Danny. He is a young rose gray Suri and I am in love. He is very well handled and easily approachable. His coloring is something special and next springs shearing just cannot come soon enough as far as my spinning wheel is concerned. He fits in nicely with the rest of the herd.
The rest of the goings on here are very standard for this time of year. It's time to wind down the garden, clean up the summer things in preparation for snow, time to think about snow tires and stock up on gas for the generator. This year I'm going to try a cover crop over the garden. I have some winter cereal rye that is supposed to do well in cold climates and help create an insulation layer when it snows to promote good bacteria growth for good soil in the spring. I've never done this before so it will be an interesting experiment. I'm not sure when to start it or if I'm already too late. There are still things to be harvested from the garden and even then I want the chickens to come through and clean up before I put down new seed. For now it has warmed up a bit and I will continue to pull zucchini and tomatoes out until they give up as well. It is probably only a matter of weeks before the first frost. Stay tuned and I'll tell you how it's working. If all goes well, I will have rye for my chickens to snack on. Healthy for them, healthy eggs for me.
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